Pan-Slavism
Pan-Slavism, a movement that took shape in the mid-19th century, is the political ideology concerned with promoting integrity and unity for the Slavic people. Its main impact occurred in the Balkans, where non-Slavic empires had ruled the South Slavs for centuries. These were mainly the Byzantine Empire, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and Venice.
Origins[edit]
Extensive pan-Slavism began much like Pan-Germanism: both of these movements flourished from the sense of unity and nationalism experienced within ethnic groups after the French Revolution and the consequent Napoleonic Wars against traditional European monarchies. As in other Romantic nationalist movements, Slavic intellectuals and scholars in the developing fields of history, philology, and folklore actively encouraged Slavs' interest in their shared identity and ancestry. Pan-Slavism co-existed with the Southern Slavic drive towards independence.
Commonly used symbols of the Pan-Slavic movement were the Pan-Slavic colours (blue, white and red) and the Pan-Slavic anthem, Hey, Slavs.
The first pan-Slavists were the 16th-century Croatian writer Vinko Pribojević, the Dalmatian Aleksandar Komulović (1548–1608), the Croat Bartol Kašić (1575–1650), the Ragusan Ivan Gundulić (1589–1638) and the Croatian Catholic missionary Juraj Križanić (c. 1618 – 1683).[1][2][3] Scholars such as Tomasz Kamusella have attributed early manifestations of Pan-Slavic thought within the Habsburg monarchy to the Slovaks Adam Franz Kollár (1718–1783) and Pavel Jozef Šafárik (1795–1861).[4][5]
The Pan-Slavism movement grew rapidly following the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815. In the aftermath of the wars, the leaders of Europe sought to restore the pre-war status quo. At the Congress of Vienna of 1814–1815, Austria's representative, Prince von Metternich, detected a threat to this status quo in the Austrian Empire through nationalists' demands for independence from the empire.[6]
While Vienna's subjects included numerous ethnic groups (such as Germans, Italians, Romanians, Hungarians, etc.), the Slav proportion of the population (Poles, Ruthenians, Ukrainians, Czechs, Slovaks, Slovenes, Serbs, Bosniaks and Croats) together formed a substantial—if not the largest—ethnic grouping.
Pan-Slavism in Russia[edit]
During the time of the Soviet Union, Bolshevik teachings viewed Pan-Slavism as a reactionary element associated to the Russian Empire.[18] As a result, Bolsheviks viewed it as contrary to their Marxist ideology. Pan-Slavists even faced persecution during the Stalinist repressions in the Soviet Union (see Slavists case). Nowadays, ultranationalist parties like the Russian National Unity party advocate for a Russian-dominated 'Slavic Union', but that type of irredentism has become mainstream with Putinism and Rashism, with the government repeatedly calling for expansionism in speeches,[19] embracing irredentist concepts including Moldova,[20][21] Ukraine[22] and other Slavic-speaking NATO member states.[23][24]
Creation of pan-Slavic languages[edit]
Similarities of Slavic languages inspired many to create zonal auxiliary Pan-Slavic languages for all Slavic people to communicate with one another. Several such languages were constructed in the past, but many more were created in the Internet Age. The most prominent modern example is Interslavic.[37]
Popular culture[edit]
Pan-Slavic countries, organisations, and alliances appear in various works of fiction.
In the 2014 turn-based strategy 4X game Civilization: Beyond Earth there is a playable faction called the Slavic Federation – a science fiction vision of Eastern Europe and Western Asia, reformed into a powerful unified state with a focus on aerospace, technological research, and terrestrial engineering.[38][39] Its leader, a former cosmonaut named Vadim Kozlov voiced by Mateusz Pawluczuk, speaks a mixture of Russian and Ukrainian with a heavy Polish accent.[40][41] In the historical grand strategy games of Crusader Kings II and Europa Universalis IV, the player is able to unite Slavonic territories via political alliances and multi-ethnic kingdoms.[42] The real-time strategy games Ancestors Legacy and the HD edition of Age of Empires II feature fictionalised versions of the early Slavs that incorporate and fuse elements from different Slavic nations.[42]